Audio 2:52
A-League plays for dominance of Australian sport

Simon LauderUpdated
Fri 11 Oct 2013, 8:53 AM AEDT

The boss of the A-League believes it can exploit its global advantage over rugby and Aussie Rules to become the most popular sport in Australia. But for now the word 'football' belongs to the other codes.

Transcript

TIM PALMER: The ninth season of A-League football begins tonight when Sydney FC takes on the Newcastle Jets.

The A-League is making a major play for dominance in Australian sport, with the goal of becoming more popular than any of the other types of football.

The A-League boss says the world game has some major advantages over the NRL and AFL, as Australia's population changes and young people become more globally connected and some new broadcast deals will help too.

Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: It's a bold statement in a nation where the word football usually means rugby or Aussie rules. Launching the A-League season this week, Football Federation chief David Gallop declared that the game with the round ball is destined to become Australia's largest and most popular sport.

The head of the A-League, Damien de Bohun:

DAMIEN DE BOHUN: There's no question it's possible. There really is generational change across the Australian community. The demographics of Australia has obviously changed dramatically. A lot of things are lining up. All the indicators and all the growth that we're experiencing suggests that it is very, very achievable.

SIMON LAUDER: Of course, most Australians already believe that football is our national sport except they're referring to a different type of sport than the one you're calling football.

DAMIEN DE BOHUN: When you say the word football in Australia it does mean very different things in very different markets. If you're in Queensland and you say football it means rugby union to them. If you're in Sydney it means rugby league and if you're in Melbourne or the southern states it means Australian Rules football of course.

So one of the things I've come to understand is that Australia is still an incredibly regional market and so being a global game as the world gets smaller, as our kids start to consume media through all sorts of digital platforms and get to access the global game of football, there is no question that people are starting to understand that football is in fact the round ball game and is the world game.

So in that context, you know, we think it's quite logical that we do position ourselves and do have the name of football.

SIMON LAUDER: Last season saw A-League crowds grow by about 40 per cent and TV ratings double. Damien de Bohun says new broadcast deals with ABC Radio and SBS will give that another boost.

DAMIEN DE BOHUN: Our average crowds are only about 3,000 or 4,000 behind rugby league's crowds now and our broadcast audiences are closing the gap as well. So it really is getting to a stage where every single Australian can hear, can see and can listen to and talk about football week in, week out.

SIMON LAUDER: And are you hoping to claim ground off the AFL and NRL?

DAMIEN DE BOHUN: We don't necessarily see it as competition. One of the things we've done with the Melbourne clubs is start, so Melbourne Heart and Melbourne Victory, start to understand how many of their members are also members of AFL or NRL clubs and in fact there's quite a big overlap.

So we're probably unique in that we compliment other sports. We're not going head to head during the winter. And we think there's massive opportunities for people to support our code of football over the summer.